Founder of the West Marin Citizen retires

Joel Hack, who started the West Marin Citizen four years ago to challenge the rival Point Reyes Light, has retired as editor and publisher of the community weekly.

"I'm moving on," Hack said. "It's been 12 years since I've had a real vacation."

The 67-year-old journalist said he is turning the paper over to advertising director Linda Petersen.

"She has a group of people behind her and they're setting up a legal structure to operate a community-owned paper," he said.

Hack, who had been the editor and publisher of the Bodega Bay Navigator for 12 years, launched the West Marin Citizen in 2007 during a dispute with Robert Plotkin, the controversial new owner of the Point Reyes Light, which had won a Pulitzer Prize in 1979 under then owner Dave Mitchell. Plotkin sold the Light last year to the nonprofit Marin Media Institute.

With both weeklies still publishing, rural West Marin remains the rare small community with two papers competing for readership and advertising dollars. While both papers have struggled financially and there has been speculation about the possibility of them merging, Hack said he fully expects the Citizen to carry on without him.

"The paper is in a real strong position, there's a strong person to guide it in Linda Petersen, and that's why I picked now to go," he said. "The group behind her includes some really swell people. So we're in a good spot. I'm not leaving when fortunes are down. I told everybody I want to see the paper continue."